


tyrant

by appleheart



Series: LoZ Unusual Word Prompts [5]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Corruption, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, Paranoia, Patricide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-05
Updated: 2015-08-05
Packaged: 2018-04-13 01:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 311
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4502142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appleheart/pseuds/appleheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The King of Hyrule needs to die, but only his daughter seems to understand this. (Not specific to any timeline.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	tyrant

**Author's Note:**

> From the prompt "Anagapesis - The feeling when one no longer loves someone they once did" from Penguin.

Her father’s laughter is a bellowing that stops conversations and turns heads. It is a surprising and joyless eruption of sound, like an animal’s roar. One must see the grin on his sweating face to recognize that it is a signal of mirth and not of violence.

The princess thinks she is the only one who hears the note of panic at the trailing end of his laugh. She wonders if anyone else sees the fear in his darting eyes.

He has executed another of his nobles today. She can no longer keep track of the reasons he gives: treason, embezzlement, lack of proper courtesy. Perhaps he no longer bothers to offer reasons. Under the supper table, she feels the long, flat line of the knife bound to her arm, hidden by the satin of her gloves.

Once upon a time—so long ago that it feels to her like a fairy tale, one told about  _a little girl not so different from you, my darling_ —her father’s laugh had preceded him like thunder before a storm, his voice rumbling through the castle halls. Once upon a time, a little girl had burst out of lessons, escaped nannies and nursemaids, to pursue that wild sound. When he caught sight of her, the king would scoop her up like a lion cub in its parent’s jaws. He would throw her into the air and carry her on his shoulders, so high above the ground that her head would swim and she would clutch his neck in a panic of fear and delight.

She feels quite clear-headed now, even though her father’s violent laughter opens dizzying pits throughout the court.

Perhaps tonight, she thinks. Her country needs a monarch, not a tyrant. She has lived like an orphan for so many years already. It cannot be so different to orphan herself in truth.


End file.
